Middleton-by-Youlgreave

A village without a pub

Square House sits on the main street where the Bateman's Arms once served as the village pub. Middleton once had a shop too, but neither business remains. The village you arrive in is a compact run of limestone cottages, spaciously laid out on high ground above the River Bradford, with no pub or shop; the Middleton and Smerrill civil parish had 133 residents in the 2021 Census estimate.

What it has instead is the walking, and the walking is the reason to come.

Down into Bradford Dale

A track drops from the village down into Bradford Dale, which runs steep-sided and wooded below. The river here has been interrupted by a succession of weirs — about six — built to encourage trout to breed, so the course is a series of clear pools reflecting the trees. There are beds of watercress, reed, king cups and rush, and if you're patient, kingfishers. A small swimming spot lies along the dale. The dale also holds a clapper bridge and three packhorse bridges, which is a lot of bridges for one short stretch of water. J. B. Frith, writing about it, decided that "for peaceful loveliness and sheer prettiness, nothing in Derbyshire excels it."

For a pub you walk to Youlgreave. Its three pubs are about 1.0 to 1.3 miles from Middleton in a straight line; the walking routes by the tree-lined highway footpath or through Bradford Dale are longer. The Bull's Head on Church St serves a selection of cask ales and fresh-cooked food. The Farmyard Inn on Main Street is a pub and inn with rooms and a bar. The George on Alport Lane is a traditional rural pub serving home-cooked, locally produced food. All three make a good stop after the walk from Middleton.

Chapel, manor and the Barrow Knight

St Michael and All Angels is the village chapel — small, a chapel of ease, disused for years before it was restored in 1899. The parish church proper is at Youlgreave. In the Domesday survey the manor belonged to Henry de Ferrers, came with a mill, and was worth sixteen shillings.

The name to know here is Bateman. In the 1820s the architect Thomas Bateman rebuilt most of the village, reusing the old mullioned windows so it kept its face, and made Middleton Hall his home. His grandson, another Thomas, grew up in that hall and became the county's most famous antiquary — the Barrow Knight, who opened 38 Bronze Age barrows in 1845 alone and over 500 across his life. He left instructions to be buried in unconsecrated ground on a hillside behind the former Congregational chapel. His tomb, iron-railed, is topped with a stone replica of a Bronze Age urn, echoing the barrows he had spent his life opening.

Castle, bus and railway

Middleton Castle, now in ruins, is where in 1643 the Royalist Sir Christopher Fulwood raised local lead miners for the King and was shot hiding in a cliff crevice. The bus stop is at The Square; route 172 runs through to Bakewell and Matlock. Matlock has the nearest railway station.

Well dressing in May

In May, the village dresses its wells, a tradition revived in 1977, and adds music. For a place with no pub, it keeps busy enough.